[{"TitleName":"Sporting Triangles","Publisher":"CDS Microsystems","Author":"Mr. Micro Ltd","YearOfRelease":"1989","ZxDbId":"0010663","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 72, Jan 1990","Price":"£1.95","ReleaseDate":"1989-11-14","Editor":"Oliver Frey","TotalPages":68,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Oliver Frey\r\nFeatures Editor: Richard Eddy\r\nStaff Writer: Mark Caswell\r\nEditorial Assistant: Viv Vickress\r\nPhotography: Michael Parkinson\r\nContributors: Nick Roberts\r\nProduction Manager: Jonathan Rignall\r\nProduction Supervisor: Matthew Uffindell\r\nReprographics: Robert Millichamp, Tim Morris, Rob (the Rev) Hamilton, Jenny Reddard\r\nDesign: David Western, Mark Kendrick, Melvin Fisher\r\nSystems Operator: Ian Chubb\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Neil Dyson\r\nAdvertisement Sales Executives: Caroline Blake, Christian Testa\r\nAssistant: Jackie Morris [redacted]\r\nGroup Promotions Executive: Richard Eddy\r\n\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\n\r\nSubscriptions\r\n[redacted].\r\n\r\nDesigned and typeset on Apple Macintosh II computers using Quark Express and Adobe Illustrator '88, output at MBI [redacted] with systems support from Digital Reprographics [redacted]. Colour origination by Scan Studios [redacted]. Printed in England by Carlisle Web Offset, [redacted] - member of the BPCC Group.\r\n\r\nDistribution by COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nCOMPETITION RULES\r\nThe Editor's decision is final in all matters relating to adjudication and while we offer prizes in good faith, believing them to be available, if something untoward happens (like a game that has been offered as a prize being scrapped) we reserve the right to substitute prizes of comparable value. We'll do our very best to despatch prizes as soon as possible after the published closing date. Winners names will appear in a later issue of CRASH. No correspondence can be entered into regarding the competitions (unless we've written to you stating that you have won a prize and it doesn't turn up, in which case drop the Viv Vickress a line at the [redacted] address). No person who has any relationship, no matter how remote, to anyone who works for either Newsfield or any of the companies offering prizes, may enter one of our competitions. No material may be reproduced whole or in part without the written consent of the copyright holders. We cannot undertake to return anything sent into CRASH - including written and photographic material, software and hardware - unless it is accompanied by a suitably stamped addressed envelope. We regret that readers' postal enquiries cannot always be answered. Unsolicited written or photo material is welcome, and if used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates. Colour photographic material should be 35mm transparencies wherever possible. The views expressed in CRASH are not necessarily those of the publishers.\r\n\r\nCopyright CRASH Ltd 1990 A Newsfield Publication. ISSN 0954-8661. Cover Design by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"CDS\r\n£9.99 cass, £14.99 disk\r\n\r\nWe've had Every Second Counts, A Question Of Sport, Mike Reid's Pop Quiz and Bob's Full House, and this is the latest TV quiz game. Based on the Central TV sports quiz it starts with the options screen where you pick how many players want to participate (up to three), the computer skill level (if you can't find a couple of friends to rope into the 'action'), decide the length of a round and finally 'throw' a dice to decide order of play.\r\n\r\nYou are then given twelve sporting categories and asked to choose one, after which a 'studio set' appears with three figures sitting behind desks waiting to be asked tough sporting questions. Five of seven rounds are standard question sessions, where each contestant in turn is asked to throw a die. The resulting number is transferred to a triangular board split into coloured segments, and a cursor is moved round the board. Each colour corresponds to a subject on the board. When the question is asked you are offered an 'answer' or 'give up' option. The idea is to speak the answer out loud and be honest when the computer asks you if you answered the question correctly or not.\r\n\r\nIn the Hit For Six round the player is offered seven different answers and six points for a correct answer if he gets it right first time. The more attempts made, the lower the score. The Jigsaw Picture round is similar, with a pictoral clue gradually revealed to give the player a chance to answer the written question correctly. Again the six points initilly offered decrease with more tries. The final round is a finger on the buzzer job where the player with the quickest finger gets to answer the question, though again you have to be honest when asked if you answered correctly.\r\n\r\nSorry CDS but I have never been a big fan of this trivia type game, and sadly Sporting Triangles does nothing to change this. The sporting questions are very tough, and I feel most will only be answerable by the most fanatical sports fan; worse still, against the computer the game is a joke because you can cheat to your heart's content in most of the rounds. Quite a nice touch is the contestants being dressed in the clobber of their chosen sports, but the amusement this causes is very brief.\r\n\r\nMARK 45%","ReviewerComments":["Sporting Triangles wasn't exactly the most exciting game show on television and it doesn't make the most fantastic game I've ever seen. If you are not a fan of sport playing this will probably send you to sleep. The graphics are nice but quite sparse, and colour has been used adequately. Unless you are playing with a friend who can stop you cheating, you're bound to win because the program asks whether you got the question right or wrong! Sound is really poor with an average tune when you first load up and hardly any effects through the game. About the only good thing is that all the levels load up in one go (on my Spectrum +3 anyway). This saves having to multi-load over and over again. Sporting Triangles is for the avid sports fan only, anyone else will soon find it boring.\r\nNick Roberts\r\n55%"],"OverallSummary":"A mediocre conversion of a less than brilliant TV quiz and for sports fanatics only.","Page":"49","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Mark Caswell","Score":"45","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Nick Roberts","Score":"55","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"64%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"62%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"45%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"52%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictivity","Score":"48%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"50%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 48, Dec 1989","Price":"£2.2","ReleaseDate":"1989-11-16","Editor":"Matt Bielby","TotalPages":116,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Matt Bielby\r\nArt Editor: Catherine Peters\r\nDeputy Editor: Jackie Ryan\r\nProduction Editor: Andy Ide\r\nStaff Writer: David Wilson\r\nDesigner: Martin Sharrocks\r\nTechnical Consultant: Jonathan Davies\r\nContributors: Robin Alway, Marcus Berkmann, Jonathan Davies, Mike Gerrard, Kati Hamza, Duncan MacDonald, Rich Pelley, Phil South\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Lynda Elliott\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Caroline Day\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Chris Skinner\r\nAdvertisement Director: Alistair Ramsay\r\nProduction Manager: Judith Middleton\r\nAdvertisement Production: Claire Baker\r\nMarketing Manager: Bryan Denyer\r\nNewstrade Circulation Manager: Stephen Ward\r\nSubscription Manager: June Smith\r\nPublisher: Teresa Maughan\r\nGroup Publishing Director: Richard Howell\r\nGroup Creative Director: Tony Spalding\r\nFinance Director: Colin Crawford\r\nManaging Director: Stephen England\r\nChairman: Felix Dennis\r\n\r\nPublished by Dennis Publishing Ltd, [redacted] Company registered in England.\r\nTypesetters: Point Five [redacted]\r\nReproduction: Graphic Ideas, London\r\nPrinted By: Riverside Press [redacted]\r\nDistribution: Seymour Press [redacted]\r\n\r\nAll material in Your Sinclair ©1989 Felden Productions, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written consent of the publishers. Your Sinclair is a monthly publication."},"MainText":"CDS\r\n£9.99 cass/£14.99 disk\r\nReviewer: Robin Alway\r\n\r\nI've only seen ITV's Question Of Sport rip-, er derivative a few times but the triangle in question doesn't seem very sporty to me. After all, when was the last time you saw it pole-vault 15 feet into the air, somersault three times and plunge into a swimming pool half a kilometre below? What a con. Mind you. It s still probably more intelligent than the three teams of famous sporting guests put together.\r\n\r\nThis licensed TV conversion is pretty true to the original programme with a total of seven different rounds making up each game. Four of them are Standard Question ones which have each of the three players moving around the triangle on the roll of a random die. Landing on your own colour square gets you a quezzie from your chosen specialised subject (no Integral Polymer Dynamics I'm afraid, just 12 popular sports to be interrogated on). Tucked in between the standard bits are the Hit For Six and Jigsaw Picture rounds. The object here is to guess from rather unobvious clues which geezer from the list your Speccy's thinking about. The final round is Quickfire Questions which has the computer pulling random puzzlers from its 2,500 strong collection, only this time it's finger on the buzzer time with the first one to answer correctly bagging the points. And that's it unfortunately, not exactly packed with variety or any of those thrills and spills we expect in a game nowadays.\r\n\r\nAll the same, it's not too bad technically. The graphics are clear and colourful, although they're not required to jump about and explode like they do in most games, and the whole thing's got a nice professional sheen to it.\r\n\r\nBasing a game around this TV prog obviously wasn't a great idea. At least that has Dennis Taylor's plankton-like witticisms to draw your attention away from the yawn inducingness of it all. Still, if sport's your 'thang', no doubt you'll be spookily drawn to it, despite your better judgement.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Thirty minutes of yawnsome TV successfully converted into the same amount of game playing time. Sport triv nutters might want it though.","Page":"67","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Robin Alway","Score":"40","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Life Expectancy","Score":"35%","Text":""},{"Header":"Instant Appeal","Score":"37%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"60%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"40%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"40%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 93, Dec 1989","Price":"£1.6","ReleaseDate":"1989-11-18","Editor":"Jim Douglas","TotalPages":124,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"JIM \"Scaredy Cat\" DOUGLAS (Editor)\r\nWith Ghostbuster fever in the office most of the SU team are making ghostly woo wooing noises and filling our mouths with blood capsules. Spazzy Jim, however, is turning into a human jelly (and you all thought he was really hard didn't you?) This is him just before he hid under the desk shouting, \"stop it you lot, you know I don't like the dark\"\r\n\r\nALISON \"Heads Up!\" SKEAT (Production Editor)\r\nEntering in Ghostbustee fever like a good 'un, Al actually agreed to have her head sawn off (she'll do anything for a laugh, that one - Jim) for our photographer. We are at the mo putting her back together with Pritt stick and staples - is there a paramedic in the house?\r\n\r\nTIM \"Creeping Terror\" NOONAN (Art Editor)\r\nAfter 15 pints of shandy at his local The Kosh and Headbutt, and 32 pints of curry from his fave \"restaurant\" Tim finds he has a bad case of biryana botty and terrifies the rest of the SU team with his impression of a Haloween pumpkin head\r\n\r\nGARTH \"Nosferatu\" Sumpter (Staff Writer)\r\nA right ruddy spooky weirdo this one. Garthy runs around EMAP towers, fangs at the ready, biting the office cat and wiping the blood on the roller towel in the loo (geross - all SU readers). That's on any normal day at work, but since Ghostbuster fever he's gone completely off his nut and killed everyone... (but not really)\r\n\r\nAdventure: The Sorceress\r\nHow The Hell: Andrew Hewson\r\nI've Got This Problem: Rupert Goodwins\r\nAdvertisement Manager: James Owens\r\nSenior Sales: Martha 'Tell me now' Moloughney\r\nAd Production: Emma 'Cor Blimey!' Ward\r\nMarketing Manager: Dean 'Beezer Geezer' Barrett\r\nMarketing Assistant: Sarah Ewing\r\nPublisher: Terry 'Digestable' Pratt\r\n\r\nOur Address: [redacted]\r\nOur Phone Number: [redacted]\r\nOur Fax No: [redacted]\r\n\r\nThis Month's Cover: Ghostbusters II from Activision\r\n\r\nPrinted by Nene River Press, [redacted]\r\nTypeset on Laser Imager at EMAP Towers. So Nerr!\r\nDistributed by EMAP Frontline.\r\n\r\nSubscription Enquiries: [redacted]\r\n24 Hour Order Line: [redacted]\r\nBack Issues: Back Issues Department (SU), [redacted]\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1989 Sinclair User ISSN No 0262-5458\r\n\r\nAll information is correct at time of going to press. And if you don't believe us Big Al Skeat will come round your house and crush your gerbil between her knees. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or transcribed, without written consent from the publishers, EMAP Business and Computer Publications. So we'll have no ore said about it."},"MainText":"Label: CDS\r\nAuthor: In House\r\nPrice: £8.95\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nJoystick: various\r\nReviewer: Jim Douglas\r\n\r\nQuiz games have never really been that easy a concept to deal with on the Spectrum. They're usually licenced from other popular Quiz entities; Trivial Pursuit, Pictionary etc. And they're rarely better that their conventional counterparts.\r\n\r\nRecently, though, virtually every quizzy game around has been linked to a TV show of some sort. We've had Every Second Counts, A Question of Sport, Bullseye - the lot.\r\n\r\nSporting Triangles continues this questionable tradition, and replicates, reasonably accurately, the Central TV quiz show.\r\n\r\nAfter setting up a team of three players (human or computer, as you wish) and defining their preferred subject areas, you are launched into the game proper.\r\n\r\nThe overall aim of the game is to progress around the Sporting Triangle, landing the Question Marker on squares indicating subject areas. Different points are awarded for answering questions inside your subject area, in no-mans' \"general sport\" land and there are big points to be had by answering a question in the oppositions chosen area.\r\n\r\nNow, before we go any further, I'm afraid I'll have to blow the whistle on the game's biggest fault. Get this; the quiz is split up into a number of rounds. Some are multiple choice, but the bulk of the questions simply sit there; \"Which county did Fred Truman briefly rejoin in 1806?\" asking for an answer. At this point, boxes with \"Answer\" and \"pass\" appear. If you haven't the fairest idea, go for \"pass\". Otherwise, hit the other box and type your answer.\r\n\r\nNO! No need to type in your answer! The computer will TELL you the answer and all you have to do is announce whether you got the question right or wrong. Mad. Mad mad mad mad mad. Mad. All the answers are in the machine, so why rely in the questionable honesty of the players? Moreover, why tell them what the answer is? You'll only ever be able to ask each question once.\r\n\r\nMadness aside, the four stages play through in similar fashion to the TV version. The astonishingly lengthy disc access time was some way redeemed by the fact that the code remained resident in our 128K machine once loaded.\r\n\r\nApparently the length of the load is caused by the random numbering of the questions, supposedly in order to produce a new game each time. Surely it would have been more worthwhile to include a sensible answering system.\r\n\r\nDespite these irritating points, the bare bones of the game is entirely sound. There are a great many challenging questions to be answered, and although a sports quiz is a sports quiz is a sports quiz, there is enough variety in the \"rounds\" to hold your interest for a while.\r\n\r\nThe Hit for Six round presents Seven multiple choice answers to a question. Each time you get it wrong, the machine will give you another clue and decrease the number of points available.\r\n\r\nThe Jigsaw Picture round is similar but instead of written clues, each incorrect answer will yield a further section of a visual clue.\r\n\r\nSporting Triangles is a reasonable conversion of a pretty silly idea. Neither fab or poor, it doesn't deserve to be ignored, but it hardly demands attention either.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Lots of Questions. Not much fun.","Page":"24","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Jim Douglas","Score":"61","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"The jigsaw round. Each time you get a question wrong, another part of the pitch reveals itself. Match up the lines to a sport."},{"Text":"Will Garth get a question right before he goes to sleep and Tim leaps into the lead.? Looks like they've already gone to bed!"}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"65%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"60%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"60%","Text":""},{"Header":"Lastability","Score":"60%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"61%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 98, Jan 1990","Price":"£1.3","ReleaseDate":"1989-12-16","Editor":"Julian Rignall","TotalPages":140,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"CONTACTS AND CREDITS\r\n\r\nEditor: Julian Rignall\r\nArt Editor: Andrea Walker\r\nStaff Writers: Paul Glancey, Paul Rand\r\nArt Assistant: Osmond Browne\r\nAdvertising Manager: Nigel Taylor\r\nDep Ad Manager: Joanna Cooke\r\nSales Executive: Tina Zanelli\r\nProduction Assistant: Glenys Powell\r\nPublisher: Graham Taylor\r\nThis Month's Cover: Chase HQ from Ocean\r\nCover Artist: Jerry Paris\r\n\r\nSubscription Enquiries to: EMAP Frontline, [redacted]\r\nEditorial and Advertisement Offices: [redacted]"},"MainText":"CDS\r\nSpectrum/Amstrad £9.99, Amiga £24.99\r\n\r\nChristmas comes but once a year, and with it a horde of computer trivia games to keep the kids (and the parents, usually!) amused after the turkey has been scoffed, the presents have become boring and the BBC's showing of Only Fools And Horses has finished.\r\n\r\nSporting Triangles is one such game. Based on the ITV quiz show hosted by smooth 'n' slimy Nick Owen, the idea is to correctly answer your way through seven rounds of frustrating sports trivia. Each of the three players (computer players are added if there are less than three players) must first choose a specialised subject from the twelve available, ranging from hortse racing to ball-sports. Should computer players be taking part in the quiz, the player is fee to select the machine's level of intelligence from one of either Perfect, Good or Average. The time allocated to the answering of each question can also be preset here, and anything from between one second and unlimited time is allowed.\r\n\r\nSporting Triangles is fast paced and, even though the questions themselves are obviously intended for sport fans only, the answer selection system gives lots of scope to cheat (I did - I still lost though!). Sporting Triangles is a game which won't appeal to many people because of the subject matter, but if you're one of those types who watches every footy match, snooker tournament and athletics meeting on the telly, as well as some of the more obscure sports on Channel 4 late at night, oodles of pleasure can be gleaned from this accurate quiz show tie-in.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"As playable as the Amiga version, although loading time is a bit of a bugbear. Graphics have transferred well, pictorial clues being easily recognisable. A playable sports trivia game but only recommended to ardent sports freaks.","Page":"74","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Paul Rand","Score":"82","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Lucky old Craig rolls a six."}],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"AMIGA SCORES\r\n\r\nGraphics: 81%\r\nSound: 84%\r\nValue: 86%\r\nPlayability: 85%\r\nOverall: 83%\r\n\r\nStrictly for fans of the series and of sport generally. If you are one of these people, get your hands on Sporting Triangles, one of the most playable quiz games since Trivial Pursuit."},{"Text":"AMSTRAD SCORES\r\n\r\nOverall: 82%\r\n\r\nPractically a spitting image of the Spectrum conversion, boasting all of the good points or the other two."},{"Text":"UPDATE\r\n\r\nC64 and ST versions are also available, and both are as good as the other versions."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"82%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]